Racing Dawn
by damo566
Summary: Whenever I search for Trackmania related items, only one story comes up. I started this to fill the gap. Have fun reading. This isn't a one-off, there will be more chapters soon. R&R!
1. Every Racing

The sun, just below the horizon, cast an orange glow over the east. Somewhere, an alarm clock registered 7:00, and switched itself on.  
Jash woke. The blinds were pulled back, letting light into the room through the bay window. He splashed himself with cold water, and then stared into the mirror. A face with messy brown hair and brown eyes stared back. He was 18, and he was involved in a racing society much bigger then people expect.  
_Wip wip._  
The car flashed its lights, orange filling the garage for two moments. The Islander was large and low to the ground, a wide spoiler hanging on to the back,the entire car painted blue with abstract arrows running down it's length. The door opened without any fuss, the car shifting its weight to hold Jash. The door shut with a soft clunk as the garage opened, the morning light revealing a scene of pituresque beauty. The grass shone a vivid green under the gaze of a cloudless sky. Jash lived atop one of the hills, and he could see the terrain slowly falling away in front of him, through occasional forests of pine trees, to the rocks that led to the beach. The water a brilliant blue, it seemed to stretch forever, but for the coast on the horizon. Jash turned his key and was rewarded as the car ticked over, the engine giving a light throb. He drove out to the road, the garage shutting behind him, and found no traffic. Turning onto the road, he pressed the pedal down. The tires spun in place as the back end waggled out as if held by some invisible force, before it let go and tore off down the road, quickly reaching 200 MPH. There were no speed limits here.

15 minutes later, Jash was turning into a different garage. This one was much larger, like a hangar, with aisles of cars either side. Many were Islanders. The were all parked in boxes lengthways, so that pit crews could move around them. Jash pulled up at the next empty one and stepped out, noticing someone hurrying to meet him.  
David was his coach. This was Jash's first year in the TMUL League, and he'd picked Everey Racing to drive with.  
Jash leaned on the car as David stopped in front of him. "I was worried you weren't going to come for a while there." Jash laughed.  
"What, me?" They both crossed over to the other side of the garage where the rest of Jash's team were. They were tending to an islander belonging to Michael, another driver in their team. He'd been doing a practice run when one of the outside tires had split. The black & white car had been in the middle of a banked turn and the split had yanked it into the wall, where it had promptly flipped out, sliding across the ground until it had hit a tree.  
The technology was able to make sure nobody ever got hurt, but the cars still suffered damage. The mixture made the racing lots of fun to watch.  
Michael was inspecting a large dent in the front grille, but stood up when Jash came near. Jash nodded at him.  
"Hi." "Hi. Nice to meet you." "You too." Micheal had been in the racing a year longer than Jash, being 19. He knew the Islanders capabilities best out of everyone in the team.  
Jash looked to David. "Is it all right if I take a few practice runs?" David laughed. "Ready to go already, huh? Can't blame you." He led Jash over to the wall, further along from Michael's islander. "This months track is here." He pointed to a 3D map. It had been made out of different pieces, like a toy set. The track started on a long straight, through a left chicane, then out over water, where the track rapidly banked to 45 and then 90 degrees, curling up in a right helix. It straightened out facing back the other way, and then became a small hill, with a ridiculously steep drop to ground level straight after; a jump. The track then put in a long straightaway, for the cars to land on, before disappearing into a tunnel underground. The tunnel quickly became a tube. A left corner, followed by three right ones and then an exit brought it back into the start straight.  
Jash looked over it, then returned to his car. "Lets go." The engine ticked over, and he moved onto the grid. The lights switched on, flashing, before turning to a steady red. He pushed the pedal down, the engine emitting a wonderful noise. The lights changed yellow in turn, and then all of them went to green. The tires spun, and the Islander shot off down the track.  
David watched him go, then turned back to face Jome, the team's manager. "The kids optimistic, alright." Jome chuckled. "He better be careful out there or his car may gain some nasty paintwork."  
"Prolly." David leaned on the wall of the garage, knocking over a pole. He bent down to pick it up. "'Course, without optimism, how will you ever get better?"  
"True."  
David leaned the pole on the wall again, but it fell the other way and hit something metal with a satisfying ring. He left it there.  
Jome walked over to Michael, who had got hold of a jack and was underneath the car banging the panel back into place. The Islander's had a wedge in the front grille, designed to force air into it, and the wedge needed to be perfectly symmetrical or the car would be pulled to one side. At the speeds these cars went, it was likely to hurl you into a wall.  
Jome squatted down to look under the car. "What do you think?"  
"About what?" Michael glanced at Jome, then returned to his work. "About Jash?"  
"Yeah."  
Michael grinned. "Who knows? He may win the league."

Jash was pushed down into his seat as the car swung around a 90 banked corner. As it leveled out, the car was launched into the air by the straightening track. A couple of seconds in the air and the car landed again with a screech of tires. Jash adjusted his direction so as to avoid hitting the wall, and then floored the pedal again. Ahead the track moved up in a hill. Jash drove off the ramp up and then the track fell away, dropping 15 metres before it leveled out again. As he free-fell, the car began tilting to the right, resulting in a loud crack and a shower of sparks when the car hit the ground. It flattened out again, the left side landing with a solid _wop_ causing Jash to lose some speed. As soon as he was flat again, he floored the pedal, moving down into the tube tunnel that would bring him back to the start.


	2. Black Cars

--- This one is PG, for swearing. Enjoy. :D ---

The high-speed cam at the line clocked him at 34.268 seconds for the lap, and Jome, watching by the side of the road, got severely windblasted by the passing car. He grabbed hold of a nearby pole to stop himself. "Shit." Nearby, a maroon car with lighting painted on the wheel arches turned on to the track, suddenly speeding up as soon as it had room. Michael's islander followed a few seconds after. It was 8:00; the track was heating up.

Eventually, both cars returned to the garage. Michael's was dripping.

Jome glanced at it and sighed. "How did you do that one, mm?"

"Crashed on the 90."

"Ah."

Jash had also managed to flatten his wheel arch. He manouvered the car onto the platform, jacking it up and then unscrewed the wheel. It fell away, bouncing across the floor. It came to rest near the pole that David had annoyed, knocking it over once again. Jash got to work with a hammer and a cast. David was nearby, so Jash started talking, not sure if he was even listening.

"I have an imbalance somewhere. The car keeps dipping to the right; I don't like being shunted every lap."

"Mmm."

David was facing the other way, looking at a computer screen. Little blobs were rushing around the screen eating each other, but the sound was lost in the general clangs and noise of the garage. Jash had a sneaking suspicion that David was supposed to be doing something.

"There's a league race today, right? The first."

"Yeah. That why everybody is out; warming their tyres."

"How many laps?"

"Just a minute."

Jash put down the steel cast and inspected his work. Pleased, we went to bother David, looking over his shoulder. The little blobs where by now rather large blobs, and one of them got eaten. Jash guessed it was an important one, because the screen flashed the words GAME OVER before David switched to a list of figures.

"Ok... Uh, 10 laps, 2 rounds. 1 stop," During each round, a driver could take their car in to fix up any damage, or tweak some of the specs; a stop. "And it starts at 11:00 AM."

Jash checked his watch. He had an hour.

"Well, I'm all set. I'll have lunch, and then race."

An hour later saw the grid half filled; very quickly it would become full. Each car was placed in order of their fastest time for the day, or randomly if they hadn't raced before then. Jash ended up 17th out of 26 cars, and Michael was further up the grid, in 5th.

Cameras came to life. The lights switched on, red, and then flicked off again. Instantly, every eye was on them. Every engine ticked over. Every other thought lost; every voice silenced. No other sound except the throb of the cars.

A lone red light appeared at the far end of the rack. It was joined by a second, and then a third. The whole rack held red for a second, and then it all turned to green.

Every car leaped forward with a roar that could be heard for miles around. Inside the cab, Jash pushed the pedal down until sheet metal blocked its way; the car tilted to the side as it entered the bank, dropping slightly. He received a bump from the right, and had to brake to avoid a large grille that had suddenly appeared in front. This resulted in another shunt from behind, regain the speed he had lost. Suddenly, the road straightened; Jash's car happened to be on the left side, and he was launched into the air a short way, landing with a thud. Behind him he heard two more thuds, and then the squeal of tyres and twisting metal. _Heh,_ he thought. _We're not even around the first corner and already there's been a prang._  
Jash put on a burst of speed up the hill, coming level with a black car with a Keidran drawn on it. Jash noticed the letters _Team M. _He didn't get any further because at that instant the car dropped away, out of his field of view. Jash followed it, landing on the straight, but the car's flat landing caused it to jerk violently and turn off to the left. Jash repositioned his hands on the wheel and then spun it back the other way, but smashed into the side wall anyway, lifting up the right side a little and throwing up a shower of sparks across the road. The black car he'd managed to overtake during the jmup passed him again, but Jash realigned the car and then pressed the pedal down again, passing a couple of other cars and drawing level with it. His car suddenly dipped down, as he entered the light of the tube. A left turn loomed ahead; Jash pulled the car to the right, travelling up the side of the tube. He was suddenly pushed down into his seat as the tube swung around, before swapping the car onto the other side and overtaking a moave car lower down. The black car was still to his right and he risked a glance at it, making out _Team Miles_ on the side. It pulled away to ground level and suddenly the tube ended, throwing Jash into the air. He landed on the right side of the carwith a loud crash and a shower of sparks, before the left caught up and crashed down. The car jerked violently and slid to face the right, the tyres doing their job and throwing most of their speed into the wall on the right of the road. The front end crumpled, and the car slid to a stop.  
"Crap!"

Jash glanced behind him, reversing out to face the right way. He waited until a break in the traffic and then shot forward again, leading a trail of sparks for a lap before the metal panel being abused was worn away. He finished the round in 22nd, and then took a break, returning to the garage.


End file.
